Thursday
05Nov2009
Dem Healthcare Bill Makes Patients With Preconditions Wait 6 Months Before Getting Care
Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 07:10AM WASHINGTON - You’re afraid your cancer is back, and a health insurance company just turned you down.
Under the health care bills in Congress, you could apply for coverage through a new high-risk pool that President Barack Obama promises would immediately start serving patients with pre-existing medical problems.
Wait a second. Read the fine print. You may have to be uninsured for six months to qualify.
“If you are a cancer patient and have cancer now, you can’t wait six months to go into a plan because your condition can go from bad to death,” said Stephen Finan, a policy expert with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. He called the waiting period in the Senate bill “unacceptable.”
in Dems, Health Care
Dems, Health Care 
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Reader Comments (18)
Have you ever noticed that the people who want to run our lives can't seem to manage to run theirs?
Yes, which is why conservatism makes more sense than anything else. However, to truly understand conservatism one has to block out all the liberal memes and the moderate Republicans and pundits who think they define it, when all they do is define what they think it should be to give themselves some political advantage.
Remember when we first met on the blogosphere when I was living in Canada Amy? Its like I keep telling people. An appointment at 10 am to see the doctor and to not get seen until roughly 3 pm is just absurd. Not that it was the poor doctor's fault. One guy treating practically a whole region because of such a doctor shortage. No one wants to go to medical school for half their lives just to come out and make middle class wages.
waiting 6 months is still better than being told "we wont insure you because you have a pre-existing condition" which is what the private insurers do all the time.
Provide some proof of that statement. No, there is no 'please'. I'm not asking.
Steph C...it happens every day, all day. I deal with health insurance companies daily and they routinely deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. I myself have had my insurance deny coverage for a pre-existing condition. It was a simple skin condition that I've treated for years (rosacia). After about 5 years my employer switched insurance companies. The new company denied coverage saying it was a pre-existing condition. I had to fight with them for 6 months before they admitted we paid for carry-over coverage. If i wouldn't have fought and knew a little they would have simply denied coverage as they do all the time. Wake UP!
timo, you can claim you're an alien from Mars and I wouldn't be able to prove differently by citing personal information. That's not proof.
stephC: what would satisfy you, social security numbers and medical records of my clients??? Do you really disbelieve that insurance companies deny claims any chance they get??? Just look online and see how many millions the insurance industry has paid out for bad faith dealing with its insureds...I'm pretty sure a jury or judge requires "proof" before they find against the insurers.
And don't think that this little "gem" is the only stupidity we will find in 2,000 pages of gobbledy-gook.
Of course this bill of full of ridiculous stuff. It never needed to be. The only reason it is complicated and 2000 pages long is that the Democratic Party "leadership" thought they need to compromise with the Republicans and pander to the Blue Dogs instead of tell them to get on board or face defeat in the next election. We could have had a very simple health insurance plan. Extend Medicare to all Americans, get rid of the stupid Medicare Drug plan that Bush used to funnel our money to the drug companies and just be done with it. But no, you guys would have had apoplectic fits and held tea parties all over the country to try to prevent the government from solving one of your biggest problems. The reason is clear and Orrin Hatch said as much recently. The Repubs have to defeat real health insurance reform because if they don't the entire country will vote Democratic for the next generation.
"deny claims" isn't the same as deny insurance. Why is it that any time anyone wants something concrete from a liberal, the liberal gets hysterical?
I'm sure there are some but I just don't believe there are as many denials as you claim. In addition, no one is stopping any one, at present, from having a health savings account. The problem is people don't want the personal responsibility.
Charles,
Gimme a break. The Dems excluded everything the Republicans wanted and stuffed in everything they wanted. If the Dems actually learned how to "compromise", then you might see some of the Republicans in favor of the bill. What kind of "compromise" is it when only extreme liberals favor it? D'UH!
Charles, was with you there, and then you lost me.....waiting 6 mos on a Govt plan for folks with preconditions is like an abortion for sick people.
Charles, like timo before you. Prove it.
The libs aren't complaining about that exceptthat it wasn't enough.
Oh, and Orrin Hatch is a squish.
One of the accusations of the left about the right is we're all about dollars and cents and don't take into account the human element. Well, let's do that. Name one government program supposedly for the people that has worked as intended. Any one, just name it and back it up with real factual data. They're all crappy and the only excuse given for the crappiness is: If we only had more money...
No amount of money is going to change things if they haven't changed in over 60 years, especially considering that $.36 of every tax dollar is skimmed off the top before anything is sent down the line and on the way down the line, more is skimmed off until by the time it reaches its intended recipients there might be $.14 of every dollar left for them.
There has to be a better way of taking care of the unfortunate than relying on government over reach.
The longest I've had to wait for my family doctor was about 10 minutes and about 30-45 minutes for a walk-in clinic.
Tim must've been one of those losers that complains about everything, from a snotty nose to a snubbed toe hence being put on the back of a list of 1000 patients.
You should be able to insure your house after it had burned down.
I heard people whose homes had burned down have trouble getting fire insurance.
Those insurance companies are evil, damn them to hell for caring about profit. I thought they were charities. I want the Government to put me to bed at night, wake me up inthe morning , feed me, take care of my medical needs, clothe me, and give me a job for life. Oh, wait that sounds like jail. My bad.